This invention relates to network connectivity, devices, system, and management. Here are the rough definitions/terminology for acronyms that we are using in this disclosure. The definitions are given solely for the purpose of illustrations and examples, for a better clarification for the reader. Therefore, the definitions are not meant to limit the scope of the invention by any means. In addition, the definitions are not meant to limit or change the actual scope/meaning of the acronyms by any means.
Rough Definitions/Terminology:
NID: Network Identification Device, or sometimes called Network Demarcation Device (NDD). NID is installed at customer premise so that a communication service provider can diagnose and ensure service delivery up to the NID.
SFP: Short Form factor Pluggable optical module. SFP is plugged into communication requirements, such as switch and routers, to provide a media conversion, such as converting electrical signals to optical for transport over fiber optics. SFP is mainly used for data rates of 1 Gbit/s to 5 Gbit/s.
XFP: is the same as SFP, but for higher data rates, such as 10 Gbit/s.
OAM: Operation, Administration and Management. OAM is a powerful tool used by communication service providers to manage and diagnose communication problems.
SP: Service Provider is a company that provides data, voice (and possibly video communication), and connectivity for the customers. Example of SP is AT&T and Verizon.
MEF: Metro Ethernet Forum: is an industry forum that is chartered to define Ethernet services and interoperable capabilities.
MAC: Media Access Control: is a Data link layer protocol used by Ethernet.
SNMP: Simple Network Management Protocol is a standard protocol that manages the equipment in a data communication network.
NMS: Network Management System is the software that controls the complete network of a service provider.
802.1 and 802.3: are IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) standard groups that standardize the Ethernet.
MPLS: Multi-Protocol Label Switching is a standard protocol that is used in routed networks.
SLA: Service Level Agreement is a set of parameters that are agreed between a service provider and customer, and must be guaranteed by service provider, and monitored for compliance.
WAN: Wide Area Network refers to the network that covers a large geographical area.
NE: Network Element is any router or switch that forwards and processes the messages.
CPE: Customer Premise Equipment is an electronics equipment that is placed at the customer site, but belongs to the service provider.
MEP and MIP: Maintenance End Point and Maintenance Intermediate Point are reference points that can initiate or process the OAM messages.
CIR: Committed Information Rate is the data rate that is guaranteed by the service provider to be delivered to the customer.
EIR: Excess Information Rate is the data rate that is NOT guaranteed by the service provider to be delivered to the customer, but the service provider does its best effort to deliver them.
CBS: Committed Burst Size: The Max amount of short term traffic associated with CIR that the service provider guaranteed to support.
EBS: Excess Burst Size: The Max amount of short term traffic associated with EIR that the service provider does its best to support.
OPEX: Operational Expenditure.
CAPEX: Capital Expenditure.
ITU-T: International Telecommunication Union: is a body of the United Nations that regulates telecommunication worldwide.
IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force: is a standard organization that standardizes the Internet technology.
MIBs: Management Information Base: defines series of parameters and variables that are needed to control any communication protocol or technology.
BW: Bandwidth: refers to the Max data-rate supported.
C-VLAN: Customer Virtual Local Area Network: is a virtual network identified by a Tag in the Ethernet frame/message.
P-Bits: Priority bits: are 3 bits of information encoded in a VLAN tag that identify the priority of an Ethernet frame.
XAUI: Extended Attachment Unit Interface: is a 10 Gbit/s serial link standard used in an Ethernet equipment.
XENPACK: is an optical module that does the same function as that of an XFP, but is larger in size.
ACL: Access Control List: is basically filtering frames, to prevent unauthorized access to the network by a customer.
POE: Power over Ethernet is a technology that can deliver Electrical power using the Ethernet wiring.
CAT5: is a type of wiring used for connecting various Ethernet pieces of equipment to each other.
EMS-NMS: Element Management System—Network Management System.
SoC: System on a chip: is a semiconductor chip with Input/Output and a microcontroller.
PCB: Printed Circuit Board.
CRC: Cyclic Redundancy Check is a error detection code used in data frames to detect bit errors.
ICV: Integrity Check Value is a error detecting code, such as CRC, that ensures packet is not modified.
PHY: A semiconductor device that terminates and processes the Physical Layer signals.
Serdes: Serializer/Deserializer: is an electronic function that converts parallel signals to serial and vice versa.
PE: Provide Edge device: is a switch/router that is located at the edge of a SP network and connects (directly or indirectly) to customer equipment (CE).
CE: Customer Equipment is a switch/router that is located at the customer premise and connects (directly or indirectly) to Provide Edge device, PE.
CLE/NTE: Customer Located Equipment/Network Termination Equipment.
SFI: Serdes Framer Interface is an scalable interface, defined between PHY and Framer chips.
Introduction:
A NID is generally used as a Demarcation Device to mark the hand-off point between a service provider (SP) and a customer, or between two service providers. The main function of a NID is to permit the SP to monitor the health of the connection and the service up to the NID (hand-off point), therefore, eliminating finger-pointing. A NID could also perform more advanced functions, such as rate adaptation, media conversion, policing, shaping, security, performance monitoring, statistics collection and even packet header manipulation. A NID generally could have 2 or more physical ports.
MEF is working on the definition of NIDs. IEEE 802.1aj is also the specification of Two Port MAC relay, which is mainly used in NIDs.
An SFP-NID is a NID that has only 2 physical ports and fits inside an SFP, XFP, or Xenpack module. It can also fit inside a dingle that could attach to Ethernet ports that support PoE (Power-over-Ethernet). An SFP-NID is powered by the host equipment that it attaches to, and does not require separate power supply. The differentiating factors of SFP-NID, compared to NIDs in the market, are that it is much smaller and does not require external power. Therefore, it is cheaper and easier to store and does not require extra space for installation. It could also be easily and cheaply mailed to customers for self-installation.